KEY FINDINGS NEWSLETTER
Spring 2002

Celebrate Deviance
According to an article by Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker appearing in Fast Company magazine, deviance is the source of all innovation whether it is commercial, biological, social, scientific, artistic or personal. The chart below follows the morphing of a deviant idea into an accepted social standard. The authors challenge corporate leaders to remember that deviant ideas are to be cherished and celebrated for the opportunities they bear.

Rudeness Getting Worse
A majority of Americans (79%) thinks the lack of respect and courtesy in American society is a serious problem. Three in five (61%) say things have gotten worse in recent years.

One-half of those surveyed say they have walked out of a store in the last year because of poor customer service. Six in 10 drivers regularly see other people driving aggressively or recklessly. Over one-third admit they use foul language in public.

Some of the factors blamed for these behaviors are social isolation (contributed to by television, automobiles, and suburbanization), overcrowding in public places such as malls and stadiums, and increasingly busy lives.

When confronted with rudeness, 20% believe it is best to point out the behavior, 36% say to respond with excessive politeness, and 42% feel it is best just to walk away.

Environmental Concerns
The percentage of people “worried a great deal” about global warming has decreased in the last few years. In 2000, 40% were worried; this dropped to 33% in 2001 and to 29% in 2002. Opinions about media coverage of this topic range from “it is generally correct” (32%), to “it is exaggerated” (31%), to “it is underestimated” (32%).

Global warming is only one of Americans’ major environmental concerns. See the chart below for a list of the top 10.

Affluent Consumers' Motivations
Advertising Age magazine reports that while affluent consumers have not changed their buying habits, their rationale for purchasing luxury goods has. The prestige brands still hold maximum appeal but now it’s because it makes the buyer feel good. In prior years, the buyers mostly purchased these items as status symbols.

 

Working Women
Recent research conducted by the AFL-CIO shows that a higher percentage of working mothers work full-time (66%) than women without children (60%). One-half of the women surveyed said their employers gave them more responsibility in the last year but only one-half of these received more pay.

Of all working women, 63% work 40+ hours, 30% work 20-39 hours and only 7% work less than 20 hours. Sixty-six percent work traditional hours; 28% have non-traditional hours. Overall, 39% of women work different schedules than their spouse or partner. The share rises for black (52%) and Hispanic (47%) women. The irregular hours and split-shift scheduling are the way many couples handle child care, and may contribute to a higher divorce rate among these families.

Online Sources for Local News
According to research commissioned by the Newspaper Association of America, 48% of U.S. internet users go online for local news. The following chart shows the most common sites chosen.

Obesity Affecting Health of Older Americans
Americans over the age of 50 are living longer than earlier generations. They are also benefiting from preventative services such as mammograms, prostate exams, blood pressure checks and cholesterol screenings. However, a new problem is on the rise that may cancel out these health gains. For those over 50 years old, obesity nearly doubled between 1982 and 1999, to 26.7%. Health complications that commonly accompany obesity are diabetes, heart disease, cancer, arthritis and depression.

Use of Government Websites
Over 68 million Americans visited government agency websites in 2001, up from 40 million in 1999. This includes sites for local, state and federal government agencies.

Bullets
  • The average American teenager has about $4,000 in annual discretionary income..

  • Seventy percent of Fortune 1000 corporate logos are blue..

  • Many Americans (65%) tell their spouse that they love them each day. This custom is less prevalent in Canada (53%), Mexico (48%), U.K. (46%), France (34%), Japan (27%), Italy (26%), Germany (25%), China (25%) and Czech Republic (14%).

  • Women in the U.S. Army cannot wear nail polish that is khaki or camouflage colored. Other prohibited colors include black, blue, bright red, white and purple. Men are not allowed to wear nail polish at all.
  • Around one-half (55%) of American women take care of the household financial planning and budgeting on their own. Twenty-five percent share these duties with a spouse or partner while 14% say their spouse handles this alone.
  • The number of high school crew (rowing) participants reached 4,545 in 2001, up from 2,274 in 2000 and 2,107 in 1999.
  • Americans aged 18-29 see about nine movies per year, while 30- to 49-year-olds see four movies and 50- to 64-year-olds see five of them. Those aged 65 and older average only two movies per year.
  • Generation-Xers make up 41% of today’s jury pool, while Baby Boomers account for 32% and Seniors for 27%.
  • Over the last two years, the number of cell phone owners rose 29% to reach 62% of all U.S. adults. Cell phone subscribers are expected to increase from today’s 137 million to 157 million by 2005.
  • About 325 million internet searches are performed each day; this is four times more than in 1998.
  • Between 1994 and 2001, the number of meals eaten out increased 3%; the proportion of restaurant-prepared meals eaten at home increased 15%.
  • A majority of Americans (64%) say it would be good for the country for if Americans to think thought of themselves as multiracial rather than belonging to one race. Twenty-four percent feel this would be a bad thing for the country.
  • Americans say they met their mate through friends (37%), school (35%), work (31%), online (18%), church (12%) and bars (11%).
  • During 2000, there were 24,500 youth gangs with a total of 772,500 members active in the U.S. Ninety-four percent of all gang members are male. While 39% of gangs have female members, only 2% are primarily female.
  • Almost one-quarter (23%) of music consumers ages 12-54 did not increase their music spending in 2001 because they downloaded or copied most of their music free. Forty percent of music consumers now own CD burners, up from 14% in 1999. 
  • When given the choice of having only one medium, one-third (33%) of children ages 8-17 chose the internet. The runners up were television (26%), telephone (21%) and radio (15%).
  • Almost two in five Americans (39%) save less than 10% of their income. Twenty percent save 11-25%, while 3% save over 50%. Sixteen percent do not save any.
  • Each percentage point of growth in the unemployment rate leads to an increase of about 1.2 million people without health insurance.
  • Nearly 6% of K-12 students have a learning disability, compared to less than 3% 20 years ago.
  • Foreign-born women now account for one in five U.S. births, up from one in 20 three decades ago.
  • In the past 10 years, museum attendance increased 22% and membership rose an average of 29%. During this same period, the number of purchased artworks decreased 16% while donations increased 50%.
  • Three in 10 (30%) new-vehicle buyers indicate they would definitely consider a hybrid electric vehicle. Reasons include high fuel prices, U.S. dependency on foreign oil, tax incentives and concern for the environment.
  • While the American population grew 20% from 1977-1995, per-capita travel grew 50%. This growth included 47% increase in the number of local trips and a 49% jump in local per-person miles.
  • Families spend an average of 19% of their income on transportation, second only to housing expenditures.
  • In the past year, 17% of adults haggled with a pharmacist to get a lower price; 13% did so with doctors, 12% with dentists and 10% with hospitals. Only about one-half were successful.
  • Healthcare premiums paid by Medicare-age retirees (age 65+) participating in employer-sponsored plans jumped 22% between 2000 and 2001.
  • Online activities of internet users between ages 15 and 24 during September 2001 included searching for health information (75%), playing games (72%), downloading music (72%), participating in chats (67%), shopping (50%) and checking sports scores (46%).
  • A survey conducted in February and March 2002 shows that 76% of all adults online are Caucasian, 12% are African American and 9% are Hispanic. These percentages basically match the race/ethnic makeup of U.S. adults.
  • The average college student spends 10 hours per week surfing the internet.
  • Almost one-half (47%) of young professionals born between 1964 and 1975 say they would like to spend the rest of their careers with their current employer.
  • One-quarter of Americans say they are completely satisfied with their lives. Those who identified some type of problem are dealing with finances (28%), health (19%), career (16%), parenting (11%), family relationships (7%) and personal goals (7%).
  • Eight out of 10 brides take their groom’s last name. Other options include the bride keeping her own last name or adopting a hyphenated last name. A small percentage of men have adopted hyphenated names or even taken their wives’ names.
  • Four in Five Americans over age 25 are overweight. This is up from 71% in 1995, 64% in 1990 and 58% in 1983. One-third (33%) are obese (at least 20% overweight). This is up from 22% in 1995, 16% in 1990 and 15% in 1985.
  • On average, smoking costs men 13.2 years of life and costs women 14.5 years.
  • Complementary and alternative medicine services spending increased 12% to reach $30 billion in 2001. Most of this spending was for chiropractic services (48%), massage therapy (28%) and traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture (18%).
  • Over one-half (58%) of all U.S. Senators and Representatives, who are up for re-election this year, had a website as of March 2002. Republicans are 29% more likely than Democrats to have working websites, and 52% more likely to have current ones.
  • In the third quarter of 2001, 19.3% of all U.S. internet users visited a job website.
  • One-third (32%) of teenagers in the U.S. own cell phones.

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